imbing over the masonry showing how long the decay
had been going on. These buildings had once belonged to English
merchants, and were evidence of English energy and enterprise, which
once had been and now had ceased to be. As to the guns in the fort, I
cannot say how much old iron may be left there. But I was informed that
only one gun could be fired and that with but half a charge.

This is of little consequence or none, but unless the English population
can be reinforced, Grenada in another generation will cease to be
English at all, while the prosperity, the progress, even the continued
civilisation of the blacks depends on the maintenance there of English
influence and authority.

CHAPTER VI.

Charles Kingsley at Trinidad--'Lay of the Last Buccaneer'--A French
_forban_--Adventure at Aves--Mass on board a pirate ship--Port of
Spain--A house in the tropics--A political meeting--Government
House--The Botanical Gardens'--Kingsley's rooms--Sugar estates and
coolies.

I might spare myself a description of Trinidad, for the natural features
of the place, its forests and gardens, its exquisite flora, the
loveliness of its birds and insects, have been described already, with a
grace of touch and a fullness of knowledge which I could not rival if I
tried, by my dear friend Charles Kingsley. He was a naturalist by
instinct, and the West Indies and all belonging to them had been the
passion of his life. He had followed the logs and journals of the
Elizabethan adventurers till he had made their genius part of himself.
In Amyas Leigh, the hero of 'Westward Ho,' he produced a figure more
completely representative of that extraordinary set of men than any
other novelist, except Sir Walter, has ever done for an age remote from
his own. He followed them down into their latest developments, and sang
their swan song in his 'Lay of the Last Buccaneer.' So characteristic is
this poem of the transformation of the West Indies of romance and
adventure into the West Indies of sugar and legitimate trade, that I
steal it to ornament my own prosaic pages.

THE LAY OF THE LAST BUCCANEER.

Oh! England is a pleasant place for them that's rich and high,
But England is a cruel place for such poor folks as I;
And such a port for mariners I'll never see again
As the pleasant Isle of Aves beside the Spanish main.

There were forty craft in Aves that were both swift and stout,
All furnished w